Essays on Charles Dickens

February 7, 1812, Landport, Portsmouth, United Kingdom

June 9, 1870, Gads Hill Place, United Kingdom

Writer

• The Pickwick Papers
• Oliver Twist
• Nicholas Nickleby
• A Christmas Carol
• David Copperfield
• Bleak House
• Little Dorrit
• A Tale of Two Cities
• Great Expectations

• "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times."
• "Have a heart that never hardens, and a temper that never tires, and a touch that never hurts."

7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870

Charles Dickens FRSA was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian era.

Among Charles Dickens’s many works are the novels The Pickwick Papers (1837), Oliver Twist (1838), A Christmas Carol (1843), David Copperfield (1850), Bleak House (1853), and Great Expectations (1861). In addition, he worked as a journalist, writing numerous items on political and social affairs.

Dickens’s writing style was heavily detailed. He used exaggeration in description to imply character traits. He was fond of metaphor, simile and frequently repeated words in a sentence to emphasize a phrase.

Charles Dickens' legacy was using his novels and other works to reveal a world of poverty and unimaginable struggles. His vivid descriptions of the life of street children in the city, workhouses and Yorkshire boarding schools lead to many reforms.

“Never close your lips to those whom you have already opened your heart.”
“There are books of which the backs and covers are by far the best parts.”
“Have a heart that never hardens, and a temper that never tires, and a touch that never hurts.”